Wednesday, July 27, 2016

EVENT : Seed Food Festival I 30-31 July 2016 I Tiruchirapalli, Tamilnadu







































Greetings!

This event has been continuously organised for the 3rd year commemorating the mission of Dr. Nammalvar, Natural Farming Scientist from Tamil Nadu.

Seed Food Festival is a two-day exhibition cum convention organised at Makkal Mandram,  Thillai Nagar,  Trichy - encourages seed producers conserving the traditional crop diversity, sale of traditional seeds, food and exchange of collective knowledge by seed producers themselves. 

We request you to participate in the event and make it more colorful. Also share the invitation with friends who may be interested in the event. 

Warm regards,
Praveen

Bharat Beej Swaraj Manch 

Friday, July 22, 2016

Now Rakhi made from Desi GM-free Cotton thread !

FROM GRAM ART PROJECT & NAGPUR BEEJOTSAV GROUP




These Rakhis are made from hand-spun yarn of GM-free desi cotton, by 50 women in 4 different villages, these women work from their home itself, each Rakhi is handmade so has unique design and colour combination, Each rakhi has a GM-free straight-line seed like, cotton, jowar, tur, etc. The concept is best explained here TOI article Better India

The Rakhis are available in the price range of 20/- , 25/- and 30/- respectively.

Place your order at gramartproject@gmail.com mention which price range and how many rakhis you want, it will be couriered to you if you live out of Nagpur. You need to pay courier charges which will depend on the number of Rakhis you order and the payment of Rakhi. As soon orders are received, rakhis will be posted and you can transfer money in our bank account.

Please find the bank account details:- 
Shweta Bhattad
Bank of Maharashtra
Ac no: 20029083714  
Branch; Karve Nagar, Nagpur
Micr code : 440014022













Monday, July 11, 2016

30-31July2016, 'Mahua and Malhaar' at Vanvadi (Neral, Maharashtra)


The event: Two day residential retreat on Mahua and Music in the pristine green forests of the Vanvadi community. Taste and learn to cook a variety of tribal heirloom mahua dishes from all over India, which are on the verge of disappearance, collected and demonstrated by Aparna Pallavi.

About Mahua:
Mahua is one of the primal foods of the Indian subcontinent. This highly nutritious, sweet tasting and delicious flower, now known mostly for its liquor, has had an interesting and vastly varied tradition as a food staple among the indigenous peoples all across India. It has long been seen as a strength-giving, immunity building and illness-preventing food. Some of these claims have been corroborated by modern science in recent years. Because of its high food value and productivity, the long-lived mahua tree is also believed to be sacred, and is part of the cultural traditions of many tribes.
Sadly, due to the pressures of modernity, the food traditions around this indigenous and zero carbon footprint super-food are now disappearing fast.


About Aparna Pallavi:
An environment journalist for the past two decades, Aparna gave up her job as senior special correspondent with Down to Earth Magazine last year to work on her passion – forest foods and indigenous knowledge of India’s forest dwelling populations. Since March this year, Aparna is travelling across the country on a journey she calls Mahua Yatra, collecting fast disappearing food traditions, recipes and knowledge around the mahua tree. 
 
DATE : Sat,30 and Sun,31 July 2016  

VENUE : at Vanvadi near Neral, Karjat in Maharashtra. It is a 21 year old collectively owned and regenerated forest and farm (more forest), in the Sahyadri foothills, about 100 km from Mumbai, going towards Pune. It aspires to evolve as an ecological forest community and learning alliance. Directions to reach Vanvadi: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oRhHFslrE9xibMEfQVGCqgPNz1eTwKTTkWcBXZHyscs/pub

About Workshop:
> Find healthy, mahua- based alternatives for curing health issues created by nutrient deficient food practices.
> Buy mahua at an earth-care price directly from tribals.
> Enjoy music and tribal dance performed by Ambibai and her team of tribal women. Join in and sing and dance yourself against the backdrop of gentle rain.
> Learn to connect with the forest, which is our primal, spiritual home, for a more balanced and healthy inner... life.
> Dishes you get to learn:
Mahua Sondhoga: A tonic prepared by the Ho tribe of Jharkhand that builds up body mass, cures anemia and enhances immunity.

Sargi-Konda : A dish prepared from mahua and saal seeds by tribals across Jharkhand, Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhyapradesh. This dish, consumed regularly, builds up rock solid immunity, stamina and strength.

Mahua Laata : Another filling and highly nutritious long shelf -life dish that can be consumed in many different ways to build up your immunity and strength.
Mahua Teke : A dish of mahua and tamarind seed from Santhal tribals of Jharkhand and Bengal, known to build rock solid immunity and strength.
Several other easy to prepare mahua dishes like mahua roti, mahua chutney, tangy mahua rasam, mahua subzi, mahua sattu and so on, which can easily be incorporated into your daily diet.
Learn to extract zero-carbon footprint mahua and saal oils.

Contribution:
The event is being organized in the spirit of gift culture.
You are requested to make a purely voluntary donation Rs.1000 for two days - to the Vanvadi community for food & shared accommodation and Rs.1000 to Aparna Pallavi for the continuation of her work in forest foods and indigenous knowledge. So a total voluntary contribution of Rs.2000 is expected (more or less is equally welcome and helpful to meet various expenses!)
Advance registration is required by filling this form and making payment; https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1b0cylHYZdYhqML36EWhTrhF9Z2S6KdeifOOppPF_S-g/viewform
 
Participants are requested to bring with them a sleeping mat, 2 sheets, notepad, pen, torch, plate, glass, mosquito repellent/ mosquito net (optional), umbrella/raincoat, and anything you would like to swim/bathe in. (The rock-pool is very deep, and should be used by swimmers only; shallower stream zones are available for non-swimmers and beginners.) There is no piped water or electricity.

For any more details, email to vanutsav@gmail.com or contact ;
Bharat : +91 9967371183, bharatmansata@yahoo.com |
Zui/Vinita: 022-23542420   
Tejal : +91 9833707598 | Aparna Pallavi : 9422559833, aparnawildfood@gmail.com
 
We look forward to see you! Please also pass the word, use following links widely to inform others who may be interested. 
http://forgmofree.blogspot.com/2016/07/30-31july2016-malhar-mania-mahua-and.html

 Warmly,
Friends of Vanvadi

 

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

From Plate to Plough: Drop by careful drop

Convert crisis into opportunity: Shift from supply side augmentation to demand side management.

Written by Ashok Gulati | Published:May 9, 2016 12:00 am


Scattered “mango rains” have brought a little respite from scorching heat in certain places. Earlier, IMD’s forecast of above normal monsoon rains had given some hope for forthcoming acche din. Yet, a sizeable part of India is still smouldering under the grip of a drought. Bundelkhand and Marathwada are just samples, but in reality more than 250 of India’s 680 plus odd districts have experienced severe drought, where even drinking water became a major problem. Wisdom lies in converting this water crisis into an opportunity to change policies and programs, so that masses don’t have to suffer again like this. This is feasible only if our policy makers wake up and start caring for water on a high priority.
What is the water picture in the country? India has almost 18 percent of global population but only 4 percent of fresh water resources. On per capita water availability basis, India falls in the category of “water stressed” nations, defined as those with less than 1700 cubic metre water per capita, per year. In 2011, its average water availability hovered around 1545 cubic metre, down from 1816 cubic metres in 2001. But at several places it is already less than even 1000 cubic metres, making them “water scarce.” In any case, the whole nation is expected to be “water scarce” by 2050. So, it is high time to wake up and face the coming reality with rationality.
Almost 78 percent of India’s water is being used for irrigation. With expanding urbanisation, the share of agriculture in water consumption will have to go down. Therefore, better water management will, inevitably, require a closer look at agriculture with a view to using water resources more rationally.
The ultimate irrigation potential (UIP) in the country, at current levels of technology, is 139.9 million hectares (m ha). Of this, almost 54 per cent comes from surface irrigation and 46 percent from groundwater resources. Surface irrigation comprises of major and medium irrigation schemes (42 per cent) and minor surface irrigation schemes (12 per cent). Overall irrigation potential can go up from 139.9 m ha today to 170 m ha, if we tap the potential of inter-linking of rivers. Our gross cropped area (GCA) hovers around 195 m ha. This needs to seen in context of the Prime Minister’s clarion call for “har khet ko pani,” and “per drop, more crop” under PM’s Krishi Sinchayee Yojana.
Much of government expenditure on irrigation goes for major and medium irrigation schemes. Civil engineers, contractors, and political masters love this for its grand scale. But the bane of this sector is that there are too many projects compared to resources allocated for them, and with thin spreading of expenditures, they linger on for decades, making them an exorbitantly expensive proposition. Large leakages make it even worse.
The other bane is the widening gap between irrigation potential created (IPC) and potential utilised (IPU). While overall IPC so far is around 113 m ha, only about 91 m ha has been utilised. This gives only 47 per cent irrigation cover to GCA. Sometimes, many experts mistakenly take it as a low hanging fruit as if water is lying somewhere and waiting for the last mile field delivery. This is illusionary as much of this water is already utilised. Anyone who gets access to water first, goes for water intensive crops like sugarcane, paddy, bananas, etc. as water is highly subsidised. As a result, not much water is left for tail-enders. No wonder IPU falls much short of IPC.
In groundwater, the problem is over-exploitation and falling water tables. More than 80 per cent of administrative units in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi are overexploited, and water table is depleting by one feet each year. This is eating away resources of future generations. And one of the key factors behind this is the highly subsidised power supplied to rural areas.
So where do we go from here to streamline water policies? The subsidy on power and canal waters together amounts to almost Rs 100,000 crore. Political economy of pricing is such that raising their prices to recover full costs seems very difficult, if not impossible. One needs innovations in public policy.
One innovation could be installing meters to measure power consumption, and also canal waters, and then incentivising farmers to save their consumption by rewarding them with monetary value of say 75 per cent of the savings at a price equivalent to what it would cost to supply from fresh investments. China is doing some such pilots, and our estimates suggest that about 30 per cent savings in water and power is feasible.
Another innovation could be to ration power and water supplies on per ha basis, and let farmers choose cropping patterns based on that allocation. If any farmer wants more of these beyond their rationed quantity, they will have to pay full cost pricing.
Still another innovation will be to replace inefficient pump sets by more energy efficient ones at government cost. Estimates suggest that almost 30 per cent power can be saved. But to save water, we need to promote drip and sprinklers aggressively, especially for sugarcane and banana, saving 40-50 per cent water. So far less than 5 percent of India’s cropped area is under micro-irrigation, and potential is at least three to four times more. Similarly, flooding of rice fields needs to be replaced by SRI (System of Rice Intensification) technique, which can save about 30 per cent water.
Last but not least, stop protecting these water intensive crops. Currently import duty on sugar is 40 per cent and on rice 70-80 percent. In fact, India is a net exporter of “virtual water” as 1 kg of rice requires 3000 to 5000 litres of water and 1 kg of sugar about 2000 litres of water, and both are being exported.
In brief, we need to shift from supply side augmentation to demand side management, and incentivising peasantry to save water by rewarding them, and making imports of water guzzler crops liberal.
The writer is Infosys chair professor for agriculture at Icrier, Delhi

Friday, July 1, 2016

Community Organic Outlet at Nagpur

Nagpur Beejotsav Group and Nagpur Organic Farmers starting an Outlet on this Saturday 2 July, where one can buy organic produce, get connected to Farmers and entire this movement.
Time:- 3.30 PM
Place:- Shivaji Nagar Hall/Ground, Shivaji Nagar.
For Details contact Akash Naoghare:- 9766912745